Christmas Gifts

Last week, I decided to treat my colleagues to some candies and small presents for Christmas. I wanted to give candy canes because it’s special, it tastes really good and there’s a very nice Christmas story behind it. I also decided to give some Post-It holders, something non-edible they could use throughout the year.

So, I had about 4 days to buy, assemble and wrap 25 gifts with 1 big problem. I can't find candy canes in Miri. 

Well, I really give thanks to God for providing me with the means to complete everything. How?

1. It just so happened that my husband’s family was going to KL for a holiday and one of his sisters was returning on the 21st (my deadline was 22nd). She managed to help me buy the candy canes.
2. I managed to find a nice poem about Candy Canes that explains the who and why of Jesus Christ, our saviour. 
3. I was able to get hold of everything I needed to make enough gift tags, post-it holders and goody bags all in one day.
4. I managed to come up with a general idea how to put everything together quite quickly. Normally, I spend DAYS AND DAYS stuck without any ideas. 

Here are the 5(4) types of Post-It holders I made.

Here is a picture of the completed gift.

I hope that they like their gifts and realize the true meaning of Christmas.

Merry CHRISTmas! 

Christmas Cards

It's been 1 month since my last post. I was really busy with all kinds of stuff the whole of last month and I was sick so I felt really tired for nearly 2 weeks.

Well, my mom asked me to make her some Christmas cards for her ladies fellowship pastors. Here's what I came up with.

I apologize for the quality of the picture. I used my iPhone3GS to shoot it and my room wasn't well lit. My mom needed to take them immediately so I had to make do.

:) Thanks for visiting. Take care!

Welcome Baby Card

When I saw Nichole Heady's post on the banner builders die, I absolutely loved how she used felt instead of ordinary paper. It was simply beautiful. I had been wanting to purchase the Banner Builders stamp set and dies but kept putting it on hold because I felt that I have spent too much money on scrapbooking supplies. But when I saw her post, I placed the order right away. :P~~

Well, here's the card I made for my husband's cousin's baby, Caleb.

Holds up to 10 pieces of gift vouchers.

I used the following supplies:

• Cardstock: Aqua Mist - Papertrey Ink, Vellum & White Card Stock - Local bookstore
• Pattern Paper: A Walk in the Park - Echo Park
• Stamping: Banner Builders Stamp Set - Papertrey Ink, Hanging Out Stamp Set - Papertrey Ink, Versamark, White Embossing Powder - Zing, Inkpad Ocean- Martha Stewart
• Punches / Dies: Bumpy Road Edger Punch - EK Success, Banner Builder Collection Die - Papertrey Ink, Hanging Out Die - Papertrey Ink, 
• Button - Papertrey Ink, Twine in Caribbean- The Twinery, Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder - Provocraft

Nail Stamping Plates Storage Solution

I bought both the nail stamping plates sets from Bundle Monster lately and wound up having 52 image plates altogether. I didn't know how to store them. All I could do was wrap them up with a piece of scrap paper so that they stayed together. I also had a hard time browsing the different designs I have.

So, I scoured through my local book stores and merchandize stores looking for a suitable solution. Sad to say, I was unsuccessful. Therefore, I decided to make an album to store all my stamp plates. Here is what I came up with.

Nail Stamping Plates Album

Album Pages

DIY Cuttlebug Cutting Plates

My sister gave me a Cuttlebug for my birthday last year and I would say it is my FAVOURITE, MOST USEFUL crafting tool. So I guess I will start with a review on my Cuttlebug. I will focus more on the different cutting plates I use with it since there are already a lot of reviews on the machine itself.

I use my cuttlebug with the following types of die:

1. Papertrey Ink Dies (sandwich: A+B'+die face down +C)
2. Tim Holtz Alteration Dies (sandwich: B+die face down+B)
3. Quickutz Cookie Cutter Dies (A+B'+die face down+C) 
4. Spellbinders Nestabilities (A+B'+die face down+C) 
5. Joy Crafts Die (A+B'+die face down+C) 

The cuttlebug cutting plates are really quite expensive for me because I need to pay an additional 40% for shipping and handling. So when I just received my cuttlebug,  I used some self healing mats for all my die cutting. It was not very good at all. I had to add a lot of shims just to cut out 1 piece of cardstock and the cut is not very clean.

So, as a substitute, I use some acrylic sheets. You should be able to find them for sale in your local signage companies. Mine were left over scraps from my brother's DIY shelf project. I cut them to size and smoothed the edges. This plate is what I referred to as B' in the list above.

These B' plates works really well with the wafer thin dies, but they break when I use them with the Tim Holtz Alteration Die. I guess it would be the same with the Sizzix Bigz die. Therefore, I can only use my original B plate with my Tim Holtz Alteration die. I will continue searching for a suitable replacement for the B plates for use with the Sizzix Bigz / Tim Holtz Alteration dies. Maybe I'll try the self healing mat with these dies.

The good thing about the Tim Holtz die is that you can cut more than 1 cardstock at a time. My sister in law was preparing some tags for her kindergarten graduation and we cut out more than 100 pieces of tags in just a matter of minutes. As for the paper trey ink dies and other cookie cutter type of dies, I find that they can only cut up to 2 pieces of cardstock at a time.

I have die cut foam, felt, cardstock and chipboard and the only material that didn't come out nicely every time is the felt. Perhaps the felt I bought (from Red Dot, Plaza Singapura) is too thick. I have to add shims and run them through twice to make sure I get a clean cut.

Here are some pictures of my original B plates and my B' plates.

Original B Plate

B' Plates

B' Plates and Cuttlebug B Plates

That's all I have to share for now. Have a good day!